In cooperation with LHV Youth Bank, we invite everybody, big and small, to gather all the building materials at hand and build an insect hotel to provide the keepers of biodiversity with more places to live and hide. Insects should be held in favour in the garden; there are natural enemies of garden pests and plant pollinators among them.
The span of almost 90 percent of the world’s flowering plants depends on insects. They are successful in destroying garden pests and provide food for many species; that is to say, they are a very important part of our ecosystems. One of the ways to support insect biodiversity is to build insect hotels in the gardens for species to winter, reproduce, and hide.
Share a picture of your finished insect hotel with the hashtags #2x2talgupäev and #teemeara2021.
1. What to use for building?
An insect hotel can be built out of very varied natural materials. You can use timber, bricks, grass, cones, mulch or branches, moss, small stones, and other stuff you find at home for luring various species to the hotel. The more varied the ‘rooms’ of the hotel, the more insects will make their home there.
2. Picking the location
The insect hotel should be located in the vicinity of bushes or trees, it should be in the shade, and leave space around it so you could marvel at its inhabitants. Do keep in mind that the hotel should be stationed above ground level to prevent wood rot.
3. Examples and recommendations for building an insect hotel
• Observe the making of bright coloured insect hotels at Vastseliina Gymnasium and Pühajärve Primary School.
• A slightly more thorough article with comments by an entomologist.
• You can also build an insect hotel shaped as a pot or metal jar.
Submit the building of an insect hotel and contribute to furthering nature education
Building a living space for insects, leaving a patch of lawn unmowed in the garden corner, or creating a patch of meadow flowers are all small, yet important steps on the path towards big changes in preserving our environment and biodiversity. By submitting your collective action of building an insect hotel and creating a cosy living space for insects you also contribute to taking nature and environmental education to even more children and youths. LHV Youth Bank donates 1,500 euros to the Tartu Nature House in the name of all those who built an insect hotel.